1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated circuit (IC) system, and more particularly, to a method for predicting and debugging electromagnetic interference (EMI) characteristics of an IC system, and a related machine-readable medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the electronic information industry has bloomed, with the result that various applications of electronic information products are becoming more and more popular. Since the size of electronic information products is becoming smaller and smaller, an intermittent or continuous voltage of the internal system is subject to rapid changes, thereby producing a great deal of noise that seriously affects the functions of each device. Such a phenomenon is called electromagnetic interference (EMI). EMI generally enters or exits a circuit via two ways: radiation and conduction, wherein radiation is leaked from a gap, groove, or other opening of the device casing, and conduction is transmitted to a power supply, signal, or control line to generate interference. Therefore, an important research and development subject in the industry is how to suppress or cancel electromagnetic interference and ensure that electronic and electric products can be operated in an appropriate electromagnetic environment.
A printed circuit board (PCB), or an integrated circuit (IC), is a support for circuit elements of an electronic product, and provides electrical connections between the circuit elements. With the current trends of electronic products toward high frequency and small size, the density of circuit elements on the PCB/IC becomes higher and higher, and thus issues of EMI and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) among the circuit elements also become increasingly important. Therefore, the design of the PCB/IC affects the anti-interference ability of the electronic device. Even if the circuit design is correct, if the layout of the PCB/IC is designed inappropriately, the performance and the reliability of the electronic product could also be adversely affected.
Frequencies are continuously increasing, while integration trends are squeezing entire systems into extraordinarily high circuit densities. EMI and signal couplings caused by EMI have therefore become crucial issues in the design of modern system-on-a-chip (SoC) systems. There is a need in this industry, regarding both the cost aspect and the aspect of the time-to-market of products, to provide a solution so that the EMI problems can be addressed or eliminated as early as possible during the design phase.